Thundering Silence
by azarathangel
Summary: No words were needed between the two, and they never were. [BoothxBrennan] oneshot


**Story: Thundering Silence**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, only the scotch tape holding posters to my wall. No claim to Evanescence lyrics or Bones here, sadly… Now I'm going to go cry, so thanks for reminding me I don't own them, GOSH!**

**Spoilers: Minor for Two Bodies in the Lab**

**Pairing: Booth x Brennan**

**Chapters: One-shot**

**Summary: No words were needed between the two, and they never had been.**

**Chapter 1: Forever**

**Note: Please review this story it makes me happy plus I'm working on another Bones fic that is going to be a (hopefully) long and detailed case file with plenty of BB goodness. Ya, review! -Ash

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"_Give me a reason to believe that you're gone,_

_I see your shadow so I know they're all wrong…_

_They took you away from me but now I'm taking you home."_

_-Amy Lee_

"You planning on eating today, sweetie?" Angela's voice penetrated the fog of an uneasy sleep. Brennan slowly raised her aching head from her arms and groggily eyed her best friend's concerned face.

"I'm not hungry, Ange." She mumbled. The artist sighed at her friend's stubbornness.

"You're never hungry, baby. But you have to eat something! And a bit of sleep wouldn't kill you either." Angela immediately flinched when she let the word 'kill' slip. Tempe, too, had noticed and flopped her head back down on her desk, letting the thick auburn locks fall over her face. Angela sighed again before getting up and closing the office door. It was time to talk.

"Bren, sweetie, you can't go on like this. I know you miss him, he misses you too. But this is the way it has to be right now. He'll be back, he's a good cop. Besides, he would never leave you. You know that!" Angela spoke firmly from her position next to Brennan's head.

"How do you know he'll come back? It's dangerous and the chance that he won't come back is better than if he will." Her voice was flat, void of any emotion save despair and utter hopelessness. "It's been a whole month, Angela. He said it should have taken a week, three at the most, to catch this guy. They already had enough on him, and he said three was a stretch. What if his cover was discovered? What if they shot him?" The tears Brennan had been able to hide for the past week began to leak out of her blue eyes. Angela watched her best friend hurt and felt helpless. Nothing she said could bring Brennan out of her slump.

What she said was true, though. There was no way of knowing Booth's condition. Undercover work was risky, and so they could not know what Booth was doing, where he was, or when he was coming home. He had given Tempe his cell phone before he left, telling her to keep it safe for him when he got back. She always had that phone with her, constantly holding it and rubbing it as if it would bring him back.

- - -

The cheerful jingle of her cell did nothing to help Brennan's mood as it brought her from a fitful sleep. The clock told her it was seven a.m., the radio told her it was a beautiful day, and the birds outside her window sang as the brilliant morning sun crept across her carpet in the dark room. But in the beauty of the world, Brennan only saw deceit and despair. It was still raining in her world. The phone jingled again and she picked it up.

"Brennan." She answered.

"Bren, you need to get to the lab as soon as you can." Angela replied from the other end.

"Okay, I'll be there soon. But why? It's Saturday." Brennan was already rummaging through her drawers for something to wear.

"Just hurry over here. I have to go now, sweetie. Drive safe!" The line went dead and Tempe tossed the phone back onto her bed. She found some dark pants that still fit and threw on a normally tight shirt and blue jacket. She suddenly stopped as she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror.

The deep red fabric of the top hung loosely on her depleted frame and her pallid complexion made her eyes look huge and sad. The normally bouncy waves of hair hung limply around her face and dark circles lined her eyes. Tempe resisted the urge to hit the mirror and turned away from it, hurrying out to her car as she ran her fingers through her hair.

Brennan arrived just before Zack and Hodgins did. Angela ran up to her with a creased brow and disheveled appearance.

"Some people from the FBI are here to talk to us, sweetie. Come on, everyone is meeting in Goodman's office." Angela turned to go but stopped as a small 'thump' reached her ear. Tempe was now sitting against the wall, her eyes blank and Booth's phone once again in her hand.

"It's about him, isn't it?" Her head turned up to Angela, locking eyes with her. They say eyes are the window to a person's soul, and Angela was almost overwhelmed at the maelstrom of emotion and heartbreak she had caught a glimpse of in Brennan's eyes.

"Isn't it?" She asked again. Angela sat down next to her on the floor.

"Probably." She said. Just then, the two male squints walked in and looked towards the two women on the floor.

"Dr. Brennan? Are you okay?" Zack asked, his voice laced with worry. Hodgins simply held out a hand to Angela. She took it and he helped her to her feet.

"Fine, Zack. Fine." Brennan's response was automatic. Angela grabbed her hands and pulled the reluctant anthropologist off the floor.

"Liar. Hurry up, they're waiting." She sent the two men ahead before turning back to her best friend. Brennan was leaning against the wall, eyes focused on the phone in her hands as she gently traced the letters 'Seeley Booth' on the back of it.

"Will you be okay, sweetie?"

"I don't know." Brennan answered truthfully.

- - -

"As you know, Agent Booth was pulled away from his duties here in Washington for an undercover assignment elsewhere. This operation was an attempt to apprehend a notorious drug dealer and motorcycle gang member.

"Undercover work is very risky, and many things can and do happen to those agents skilled enough to be sent undercover. While Agent Booth was indeed a skilled agent, there was a leak in the operation." The FBI spokesman continued, not missing a beat in his obviously rehearsed speech. But neither Angela nor Brennan missed the fateful 'was' in the man's speech. Angela heard Brennan suddenly draw in a quick breath, but she said nothing.

"This leak has been dealt with accordingly, but the breach did not go without consequence. One of the target's hit-men shot Agent Booth as he was heading back to his hotel around eight o'clock p.m. last night.

"Agent Seeley Booth is dead." A few more words were exchanged, but Brennan did not hear them. 'Booth is dead' rang over and over in her head, tearing at her heart. She was not aware of Angela's eye son her, or anyone else's. Her stare was blank, a faraway look to her glassy eyes.

The rest of the day Brennan ran on automatic. Her words were terse and snippy, but no one bothered her about it. Goodman tried to convince her to take a few days off, but to no avail. Angela tried to talk to her a few times, but Brennan had nothing to say. The next day was much like the first, and the next. It was on the fourth that her control finally slipped.

- - -

It was late Tuesday night and Angela was dropping by her best friend's office before leaving for the night. Everyone else had left and the light was still on in Brennan's office. Angela hummed a tuneless tune as she slowly ambled down the hallway towards the office door.

"Hey sweetie, just telling- Bren?" Angela stopped short as her eyes met an empty office. Everything was as if Brennan was still there, but the scientist was nowhere to be seen. Angela stepped into the room and walked over to the computer. A soft song was drifting from the speakers, barely audible even in the silence. The brunette artist jiggled the mouse and the computer screen flickered back to life. Foreigner was playing.

"Oh, sweetie…" Angela murmured. She flew out of the room and dashed to the parking lot. Brennan's parking pace was vacant. Angela quickly jumped into her won car and sped off towards Tempe's apartment.

Angela let herself into the building and all but sprinted towards Brennan's bedroom. The door was slightly ajar and soft cries filled the hallway. Angela paused at the door and sighed heavily, her heart aching. Everything was finally catching up to Tempe, and it hurt her to see the strong woman so down. She gently knocked on the door before approaching the quivering body on the bed. She sat on the edge next to her friend and gently placed a hand on her back.

"What were his last words to you, Bren?"

"To keep his phone safe." She whispered, said device held close to her chest. Angela closed her eyes and let a single tear roll down her cheek.

"What else?" She asked. Brennan sighed.

"He loved me, Angela. He told me that he loved me and that he'd be back soon." Tempe relived the memory as another sob caught in her throat. Angela rubbed her back with one hand in an attempt to help and relieve some of the pain.

"What'd you say?" Another tear slid down Angela's face. She never realized just how important that damn FBI agent was to them.

"I just watched him leave." She whispered back. "I was too stunned to say anything, but now he'll never know." Angela sniffed back another tear and stood as she felt Brennan shift on the bed, turning her head into the pillow. An unspoken understanding passed between the two and Angela prepared to leave, Brennan's need to be alone her incentive.

"Alright, sweetie. I'm sure he knew all along." She knelt by the bed so Tempe could see her as she once again shifted her head, this time to see Angela's eyes. "You need sleep, but I'll be back later. I love you, Bren." Angela smiled sadly before turning and stepping into the hallway. She trudged towards the door, head down and eyes half closed. She stepped out into the rain and promptly ran into something hard.

A pair of chocolate brown eyes looked back down at her and a streak of lightning illuminated the tired FBI agent's face. Angela simply stared, not knowing what to say or do. Was it even possible?

"Where is she?" He asked, his deep voice breaking her thoughts. Angela found her voice.

"You're alive?" She almost screeched. Booth held out his arms with a small, guilty grin.

"Oh, my god, but how? Why?" Angela gaped.

"There was a leak in the operation, but we found out before anything serious happened. I had to be dead to throw suspicions off, so they said I was dead. Pretty convincing, actually." Booth chuckled darkly. "They had a body and everything… Well, I'm dead, the guy came out when he thought it was safe, and we caught him.

"I wanted to call, but I couldn't. You have no idea how much I've needed to talk to her this past month. Where is she?" Booth repeated his initial question.

"In her bedroom, but do you even know the hell you put us through?" Angela asked, but Booth was already dripping his way down the hall to her bedroom.

Booth gently knocked on the door before stepping in and approaching the bed. No sound emitted from the anthropologist and Booth knelt beside her, his eyes on her face. Her own eyes were closed, hot tears leaking out, coating her eyelashes and soaking her pillow. Booth thought she was asleep at first and he reached out to brush a lock of hair from her beautiful face, content to just be near her for the moment.

"He's gone, Angela. Gone." She whispered, not knowing who it was who knelt at her side now. "He loved me, but all I did was stand there like an idiot. I love him, Ange, I love him and now he'll never know. Never." She cried silently. A fierce ache in his chest pounded at him, the guilt at what Tempe had gone through in the past month, in her entire life, eating away at him. First her parents, then him. Booth wanted nothing more than to take her pain away right then, but he had to move slowly, no matter how much he wanted to take her into his arms right then. Her face was dangerously pale, and as his eyes roamed the rest of her body, he could see she had lost quite a bit of weight. And all because of him…

"He knows." Booth spoke gently, stroking her hair. "He always did know, never needed any words." Her eyes fluttered open and his brown eyes connected with the blue he had missed so much in the past month. But the sadness in them was almost overwhelming. She needed him just as much as he needed her.

Her eyes searched his, a frantic hope lighting the deep blue irises. She sat up slowly, still watching him warily as though this was all a dream she would soon wake up from. Booth rose with her, keeping eye level. No words were exchanged between the two. Temperance reached a hand out slowly and touched his cheek, tracing the outline of his face. Booth resisted the urge to take her hand in his, to kiss her palm and her lips. A shiver ran down his spine at her gentle touch, and still he resisted. She needed to do this, to believe it herself.

Brennan leaned forward, still tracing. Booth smiled at her then as their eyes connected again and she finally knew that she was not about to wake up from some cruel dream, that her subconscious was not playing a cruel trick on her. Tempe wrapped her arms around his neck and looked deep into his eyes, her arms resting lightly on his shoulders as she fiddled with the hair at the nape of his neck, still in disbelief. Booth could resist her no longer, and he snaked his arms around her waist and pulled her to him, holding her tightly and never wanting to let go. Tempe finally believed, and knew that he could not be dead. Only Seeley Booth could hold her tight enough, she learned that back in the warehouse two months back. And only Seeley Booth could appear and make everything right again. The man that held her now could only be him.

His lips pressed against her temple in an innocent kiss, the stubble on his jaw gently scraping her cheek as he cradled her against his chest in a loving embrace.

"I'm back."

"_We'll be halfway to anywhere_

_Where love is more than just your name._

_Forget this life,_

_Come with me,_

_Don't look back you're safe now._

_**Unlock your heart,**_

_**Drop your guard,**_

_**No one's left to stop you now.**"_

_-Amy Lee_

_**Finis**_

Woo! Done! Hope you guys liked this, I loved writing it! So, review my pretties! Yay angsty fluff! My favorite thing!

-The one, the only, Ash!


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